Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.
BRIDGING THE “DATA TRANSFER” GAP In the field of conservation, it is not uncommon for researchers to end their grant reports and journal articles with an inspiring statement about the value of the study for land managers in their efforts to protect biodiversity, sustainable populations, and healthy habitats into the future. The statement is likely […]
We are finally experiencing the last ripples of Pebble mine. After decades of powerful advocacy, extensive salmon research, and strong tribal voices, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vetoed the proposed copper mine threatening the headwaters of Bristol Bay in January 2023. We are still celebrating this long-anticipated moment and all those who played a role […]
It took less than 13 years for oil from Prudhoe Bay, traveling down the new Trans-Alaska Pipeline, to smother the coast and the life it sustained in Prince William Sound and beyond. From 1977 to 1989, the corporate and political promises seemed to be paying off for Alaskans. All the concerns about the potential risks […]
A Hilcorp contractor – SAExploration Seismic Services – is seeking a Miscellaneous Land Use Permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to conduct a seismic survey this spring. To conduct the survey, SAE will detonate explosive shocks at 55-feet intervals along a 5.4 mile transect encompassing land, tidal and waters around and north of Anchor […]
As we wait with anticipation for the EPA’s 404(c) Final Determination on Pebble mine later this month, Inletkeeper continues to ask questions about the Donlin Gold mine. The Donlin Gold mine would be a massive open-pit complex next to the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska and it presents sweeping risks to wild salmon habitat stretching […]
Nowhere is the disconnect between energy policy and climate impacts more evident than in Cook Inlet. In the same waters covered in last month’s federal Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258, federal fisheries managers closed the highly-lucrative Pacific cod fishery in 2019-2020, and they cited – for the first time ever – climate change as […]
This has been a frustrating year! Yet another Pebble mine comment period. Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet is happening tomorrow despite being canceled in May. The Cook Inlet beluga whale population is not improving. Our carbon emissions continue to go up, not down as is desperately needed. The best part […]
As Alaskans pay over $4/gallon at the pump, Exxon Mobil Corp. made record-breaking 3rdquarter profits. With rising demand and an undersupplied energy market amplified byWestern sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the planet-warming dirty money isrolling in fast. If corporations really were people, this one and its cousins would be unwelcome atthe holiday […]
It’s easy to feel alone in the conviction that now is the time to stop developingnew oil & gas leases in Alaska. In 2022, we’ve seen Congress mandate that Lease Sale 258 in the federal watersof Lower Cook Inlet move forward before the end of the year; and the BidenAdministration expressing support for the Alaska […]
This month the National Fish Habitat Partnership announced its list of 10 “Waters to Watch” for 2022. Cook Inlet’s Deshka River was listed as #1. Cook Inletkeeper and partners have invested years of research into better understanding the Deshka River. Management actions to minimize the effects of warming on Deshka River salmon have been limited by […]
On Monday, I saw a helicopter pilot I hadn’t seen in 14 years. Stan piloted my first trip in Bristol Bay to sample small headwater streams near the Pebble deposit. Seeing Stan brought up a flood of memories and names of people who have contributed to the decades of work to protect Bristol Bay, each […]
The blue lines on topographic maps necessarily under-represent the complex movement of freshwater across floodplains, through wetlands and gravel bars. For a juvenile fish, the blue lines are experienced as a maze of currents, temperature, food and hiding places, while a migrating adult salmon wends its way along the blue lines of riffles and pools […]
Cook Inletkeeper has been keeping a watchful eye on the west side of the Susitna River for years. When the state of Alaska permitted a 315-mile right-of-way for a gas pipeline to fuel the proposed Donlin Gold Mine, cutting a massive swath from Cook Inlet, over the Alaska Range to the mine site, we joined […]
Salmon are no canaries. They have robust life-history strategies and diverse habitat needs. If we keep their freshwater habitat cold, clean and intact and their marine food web stable without large blobs of warm water, wild Pacific salmon will persist and continue to contribute to global and local food security. Their greatest vulnerability is that […]
You look at seed catalogs in December. You buy snow blowers in June. You mend nets in August. You prepare for your future guided by your hopes for the future. So let’s all brush aside the fog of uncertainty clouding our vision over these last 18 months and prepare for the future we want in […]
I’ve never been a fan of scary movies. All the anticipation and fear of knowing that bad things are around the corner – and there’s nothing to do about it – is not my idea of fun. I think that’s why I’ve been committed to monitoring salmon stream health during this time of rapid change. […]
As I read the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC Sixth Assessment, Summary for Policymakers 2021), I was surprised. Not by the content. We have been hearing about wildfire and floods and melting glaciers for years. We have read we have until 2030 to make real change in our carbon emissions. We know […]
After a year of not seeing our longtime supporters due to the pandemic or the opportunity to meet new people with different perspectives at in-person events, we really wanted to hear directly from Alaskans. So, we developed a survey to understand community-specific concerns about threats to water resources—both old and new—as we consider future projects […]
In my early years learning about the ecology of streams, I spent a few summers in the sagebrush country of southeastern Oregon. I was studying desert springs measuring water chemistry, collecting bugs and identifying plants associated with each little oasis. I was discovering the complex connections of the natural world at a very micro-scale. I also learned […]
This summer we shared our latest paper on the importance of freshwater conditions for Cook Inlet Chinook Salmon and highlighted how important it is to understand stream-specific responses to climate change for better management of our valuable fisheries. Now we’d like to put the spotlight on other important research going on that is helping us […]
A new study – led by University of Alaska researchers and in collaboration with Cook Inletkeeper – provides the first evidence that declines in many of Alaska’s Chinook salmon populations can be attributed in part to climate-driven changes in their freshwater habitats.
Climate Crisis Sends Stream Temperatures Off the Charts As Alaskans suffer through the smoke, haze and danger of a record-breaking heat wave, Alaska’s salmon are suffering too. On July 7th, stream temperatures topped 81.7 F (27.6 C) in the Deshka River, a major salmon stream on the west side of Cook Inlet in the Mat […]
